Washington State Catholic Medical Association:
Inaugurated by Archbishop Alexander J. Brunett
Providence Chapel, Seattle, May 19,2001
Catholic Physicians Guild Mass Homily
It is a pleasure to gather with you this morning, physicians, nurses, health care professionals and administrators. As Archbishop of Seattle, I extend my personal word of gratitude to you on behalf of the sick, the elderly and the infirm, who are the beneficiaries of your compassionate care and ministry.
As doctors and health care professionals, you hold a hallowed place in the hearts of our people. As you minister to us, in good times and in bad, in sickness and in health, your work is far too often taken for granted, and your dedication and competence is unnoticed and unsung. Today provides an opportunity for us to express a word of gratitude and encouragement as you minister to the people entrusted to your care.
In 1995 Joseph Cardinal Bernardin, Archbishop of Chicago, announced at a press conference that he had been diagnosed with an aggressive and life-threatening from of cancer. In the months that ensued, Cardinal Bernardin welcomed into his life the ministry of Dr. Ellen Gaynor, a Dominican sister and oncologist at Loyola University Medical Center. Dr. Gaynor embodied and reflected the sacred trust that exists between patient and physician and provided the Cardinal the precious gifts of science and art, firmly anchored in the compassionate mission and ministry of Jesus.
In her meditation on Cardinal Bernardin’s life and death, Dr. Gaynor acknowledged that the Cardinals’ own suffering and death gave her new insights into ministry and medicine. Just days before he was called home to God, Dr. Gaynor advised the Cardinal: “You are very close to death. You will die this week.” She asked him, “Are you OK with this/” To which he replied, “If it must be…I am ready.” Dr. Gaynor wrote: “ I stand in awe of this man. Inner peace such as Cardinal Bernardin displayed does not just happen. It has to be nurtured over a lifetime… This was a man who ‘put on Christ’ in his own life. In this man, we experienced the transcendent – we experienced our God.” In this physician, we saw the embodiment of Christ who continues His healing ministry through the hands of compassionate and dedicated physicians and health care professionals.
Today, as you gather together as physicians and health care professional, you are poignantly aware that the practice of medicine is undergoing rapid and dramatic change. You feel the mounting pressure of managed care. You know the realities that subtly place efficiency and economy above the quality of medical practice. You are no stranger to hospital closures, consolidations and cutbacks. You experience directly the drama of technological advances and the need to remain a lifelong student and learner. You have witnessed the growing the growing disparity between the privileged and those who cannot even afford a simple bottle of aspirin in their time of need. You know well the plethora of ethical questions and dilemmas that every physician faces – decisions affecting real people within the human family.
In the face of tumult and change, mounting pressures and demands, progress and productivity, it is easy to be swept into the current of frustration or cynicism. More importantly, it is easy to become disconnected from the vision and values that give meaning and direction to Catholic health care and the practiced of medicine.
These challenges I describe and the many others you experience daily underscore the importance of coming together as Catholic health care physicians and professionals who desire to minister in ways that are rooted in our cherished Catholic tradition and guided by the mission and values of Jesus Christ. Your gathering this weekend will provide you with a beginning experience that is rooted in Catholic social teaching and supported by men and women who share a love of medicine and a desire to walk in the ways of Christ and the Church.
The Reverend Robert Barron is a Catholic priest and professor of theology from Mundelein University in Chicago. He writes that “theology is a way of seeing,” and this common vision helps shape and guide the world in which we live. The vision about which I speak has been powerfully articulated by the holy Father himself in his encyclical entitled, Evangelium Vitae – the Gospel of Life: “It is the affirmation of the inseparable connection between person, life , and bodliness. It is the presentation of human life as God’s gift, ath fruit and sign of God’s love. It is the proclamation that jesus has a unique rlationship with every person, which enables us to see in every human face the face of Christ” (Section 81). “this dignity of all human life flows from creation in the image of God. (Genesis 1:26), from redemption by Jesus Christ (Ephesians 1:10; Timothy 2: 4-6), and from our common destiny to share a life with God beyond all corruption (1 Corinthians 15: 42-57).”
Such a vison involves making clear all the real and practical consequences of the Gospel of Life: “Human life is sacred and inviolable” (EV 810), and such a vision has real and clear consequences that guide our everyday action and ministry to our people. This realization helps keep health care in perspective. In the words of Dr. John Haas: “Consequently, anything done to preserve or restore our health must not do violence to our inherent dignity” (P. 2, Ethics and Medics).
Such an understanding of the human person and the special role you have as physicians and health care professionals helps transform your profession into a ministry of healing that is rooted in the life of Christ and the ministry of the apostles. Wherever he went, Jesus brought healing and hope to the sick, the injured and the dying. The apostles continued His saving mission of healing and hope. St. Ignatius of Antioch counseled the early Christian community to “bear the ills of everyone,” for by serving the sick, we serve Jesus Himself in His suffering members: “I was sick and you visited me,” He will say on Judgment Day. The sick person in the Christian world is no longer the one accursed from whom people turn away (cf Psalm 38:12). Rather, the sick embody the image and the sign of Jesus Christ.
In this rapidly changing society, I ask you to raise your eyes and hearts to the vision of Christ Jesus in our midst. I ask you to remain in communion with your bishops and in union with the apostolic Church. As Archbishop, I encourage you to remain rooted in prayer and reflection and stay firmly anchored in the Gospel of Life. I ask you to seek the company of other faithful Catholics who will help you stay grounded in our sacred tradition that flows from the teaching and preaching of Christ Himself. I ask you to embrace the values of our “Ethical and Religious Directives,” which are rooted in a commitment to promote and defend human dignity. I encourage you to see yourselves as ministers of the Gospel who are sent to serve the sick, the poor, and the needy with the gifts that god has entrusted to your care. Above all else, I ask you to remain in communion with the Church, whose mission and vision will help your actions and decisions. In short, I invite you to open the doors of your hearts to Christ, who offers you salvation and commissions you to transform the hearts of the persons who co to you for care.
Over four decades ago, Life magazine published an article entitled, Prescription for Modern Medicine. In poetic fashion, its words reflect the magnificence of medicine when rooted in a vision of mission and ministry:
“ Of all human acts, few can match the quiet splendor of the moment when the pale and tremulous fingers of a sick person are grasped in the firm reassuring hands of a compassionate physician. This simple act, mutely promising that all the powers of modern science will be unsparingly invoked to restore health, is among the finest deeds of humankind. It is more than a ritual. When pain and fear make a sick person feel that all is lost, the laying on of healing hands brings solace and hope. Its strength can even turn the tide of illness and amplify the curative effect of the strongest wonder drug. It remains today as it has always been – man’s oldest medical miracle” (Life magazine, October 12, 1959).
As ministers of the Gospel of Life, you share in the very mission and ministry of Jesus Christ. In the words of today’s psalm: “Know that the Lord is God; the Lord made us. His we are” (Psalm 100).
May each of you know the special joy that comes to those who faithfully follow the footsteps of the Lord. May your precious work not only bring healing to others, but may it also transform your own hearts into the image and likeness of God, in whose name you minister and whose healing work you carry out each day. Amen.
